Online Journal of International Education
Volume 1, Number 1, 2016
Editor: Dr Adam Brown; Director of Research, Auckland Institute of Studies
Preface
After a hiatus caused by various factors, the Journal of International Education and Business resumes publication after a revamp, as the Online Journal of International Education. Those factors include several other responsibilities that the Editor has assumed over the last couple of years.
This issue of the journal has a distinct focus on pedagogy, that is, the method and practice of teaching. The nature of the curriculum and whether it prepares learners for their future posts, what actually happens in the classroom, how teachers manage their teaching, and how learners manage their learning, are all covered. While two case studies of education and training are presented (of facilities managers and chefs), the themes explored are applicable to other subject areas.
International students and personal responsibility towards learning
In an educational environment such as tertiary education in Australia and New Zealand, where a large proportion of the students are from overseas and thus a valuable source of export revenue, Ly Thi Tran and Thao Thi Phuong Vu explore the attitudes of international students to the responsibility for their learning. Using 155 interviews in educational institutions in three states of Australia, they found three main motivational factors: the attendance and performance requirements of their student visas; pressure to avoid wasting the investment in fees, accommodation, etc (often by their parents); and their individual self-esteem, identity, perceived work ethic, and intrinsic interest for learning.
Zone of trade-offs in higher education
Teachers, at whatever level and of whatever subject, do not have unlimited time to complete all the tasks that they would like to accomplish, both with their students, and in connection with other academic and administrative functions. Some form of compromise and prioritisation (ie trade-off) is therefore necessary, although little guidance, institutional or otherwise, is usually given for this. Saravanan Raman, Peter Fleet and Subhaseni Chinniah investigate the trade-off practices of full-time lecturers at the Strathclyde Business School, Glasgow, Scotland. As students are paying customers (regardless of who actually pays the fees), customer service quality dimensions are used: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy.
Facilities management professional development: A New Zealand case study
What kind of a position is that of facilities manager? Is facilities management mature enough to be a discipline in itself? Or is it a hybrid of other established disciplines (management, engineering, architecture, etc)? What training is available for facilities managers? These and other questions are examined by Jack Crutzen, Erwin Losekoot and Anne Staal by means of a “world café” methodology. Fifteen facilities managers and involved academics took part in interactive discussion groups to tease out personal responses to questions such as those above. While New Zealand is behind the USA and Europe in developing facilities manager as a discipline, current developments show that it is catching up.
Development of occupations in the new entrepreneurial working life situation: an example of a chef’s profession
What does a chef do? Obviously he/she cooks. However, perhaps after an apprenticeship, most chefs want to start their own business, eg restaurant. A understanding of the basics of entrepreneurship is therefore necessary, to cover business aspects such as management and organisation; marketing and service; culture (eg food journalism); ethics (eg quality control, hygiene); and innovation (eg devising new menus). Anne Roosipõld, Mare Kurvits and Aet Kull report the success of runs of a Base Training for Starting Entrepreneurs course designed for 160 such people in Estonia. In addition to the expected increase in entrepreneurial skills and confidence, 38.75% of the trainees started a business at the end of the training, and 62.90% within six months.
Book reviews
Because many students in New Zealand are international and non-native speakers of English, two reviews focus on what goes on in the English language teaching classroom, especially the related skills of speaking and listening. Terry Leotta reviews the TESOL publication Pronunciation in the classroom: The overlooked essential edited by Tamara Jones, which aims to integrate pronunciation teaching with other classroom activities. Tony Ó Braonáin reviews Active listening by Rost & Wilson, which contains many exercises for training learners to listen more effectively.
Adam Brown
Editor, Director of Research